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1500 questions
11
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What do people mean when they refer to a work as "Dostoevskian"?
I hear this term thrown around a lot, in connection to a variety of different works. They don't all share the same central themes, though - at least not necessarily. But they do all tend to be connected in a pretty basic way: they're all fairly…
user80
11
votes
1 answer
Short Horror Story in which protagonist is a monstrous freak in hiding?
I read this in a horror anthology, and thought it was called "I, Monster" but could find nothing through Google on this. Also thought it was an R Chetywnd Hays story, but again it seems invisible now.
I loved this story as a teen - plot as follows…
Norm da Plume
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11
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2 answers
Understanding this sex scene in A Song of Ice and Fire
I'm reading A Song of Ice and Fire, and there's a sexually explicit scene where Jon Snow and Ygritte have sex. Jon does something, and afterwards Ygritte says:
Afterward, she was almost shy, or as shy as Ygritte ever got. “That thing you did,” she…
Confused
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Why didn't The Last Battle mention Susan's reaction to her family's death?
In The Last Battle, several of Susan's close relatives (including all of her siblings) were killed on the same day in a train crash. The book merely mentions that she was no longer a friend of Narnia, and that she was in a particularly silly phase…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Which parts of the portrayal of women in "Flatland" are satire?
I recently finished Flatland (full text link), and I found it generally a somewhat disconcerting read. I realize that it's satire, and it's written in the tone of satire, particularly when it comes to women - but some of the remarks that they make…
user80
11
votes
1 answer
How do I get started with the Cthulhu mythos?
Having encountered a number of references to Cthulhu in various places over the years, I would like to explore the various works based in the Cthulhu mythos. Out of curiosity, I had read The Call of Cthulhu some time ago, but I don't know much about…
muru
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Book about a boy who develops several accidentally destructive science projects
I read this in the 1990s while living in Kentucky. Pretty sure it was a library book, although I'm not certain if it was the school or city library. The main character is a young teenage male, in either middle school or high school, Caucasian,…
Sean Duggan
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11
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What is "the Poetic Genius"?
In "All Religions are One", William Blake develops an argument around a concept called "the Poetic Genius".
From the modern, surface meaning of the words, the Poetic Genius would seem to be the faculty of creating and/or appreciating and…
Torisuda
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11
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What parallels can be drawn between Hunger Games characters and their classical namesakes?
In the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar, the minor character of "Cinna the poet" is brutally killed by an angry mob who mistake him for Cinna the conspirator. When he protests, "I am Cinna the poet", they respond, "Tear him [to pieces] for his bad…
Rand al'Thor
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11
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Where is Kafka's "The Trial" set?
The novel The Trial by Franz Kafka contains many deliberate omissions of information: for example, the main character's surname and the names of several other characters, the nature of his crime, and the location of the unspecified city and country…
Rand al'Thor
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11
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2 answers
Does the "Little Free Library" program actually provide access to books to low income communities?
Little Free Library is an organization that builds and distributes miniature libraries that can hold, I would guess about twenty books each. Here's a picture of one from Wikimedia Commons:
The Little Free Library website claims that their program,…
user111
11
votes
1 answer
What Confederate counterfactual story features Florida as an independent tourist republic?
This comment on Timothy Burke's article "On Confederate Counterfactuals" describes a story (presumably a novel) the user read about 40 years ago:
[...] the very first Confederate counterfactual I read in the 1970s. Of course I can’t remember the…
BESW
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Why wasn't O'Brien considered a thought criminal?
Given that O'Brien shows a high level of awareness of the Party's deceptiveness and malice (e.g. the fact that he admitted to being involved in creating and promoting the Goldstein myth), to what extent does he actually believe in the system…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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11
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2 answers
What in the Congo causes Marlow's need to lie to the Intended and others back at home?
In Heart of Darkness, Marlow comes back after Kurtz's death feeling unsure about the people around him after witnessing the atrocities of the Congo which are not known to the people back at home.
Why does Marlow feel the need to lie to the intended…
UdonSenpai
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11
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Does this passage in "I Am a Cat" reference a real Western novel?
In Chapter 2 of the 1906 story, I Am a Cat, (full text of this and preceding chapters available here), the cat makes reference to a particular "western novel" in order to draw an analogy with his master:
“Ah, and who were the women?” enviously my…
Rand al'Thor
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